


First Day Jitters

by Lilly_Shiba_01



Series: Nathalie AU [3]
Category: Glee RPF
Genre: Angst, Chris and Darren need to learn to comunicate better, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Married Chris Colfer/Darren Criss, Nathalie is an OC, Parents Chris Colfer/Darren Criss, Sassy Nathalie, but not with each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-02 18:31:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20815883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilly_Shiba_01/pseuds/Lilly_Shiba_01
Summary: First days can be scary. But what if you also have to talk about something with resultates that are not like you expected. Well, it looks like this first day of school did not go as planned as Chris thought.





	First Day Jitters

**Author's Note:**

> So, sadly, this story is a month and a day late, because I started school again in August and didn't found that much time to write. Because of me being late, you won't just get one story this month, you'll get the story for August, the story for September and an extra story. I hope you can forgive me because the reason why I'm late this month is that I'm in New York right now and I'm still so overwhelmed. In 2 days I'm gonna meet Chris and next Saturday I'm going to Elsie.   
Also, I wanted to say thank you for the kudos in the first two story's, and I hope this one is better than the last. Reviews are appreciated so that I can know what I do good or what I could change.

First days were never easy. First days of school, College, living alone, having a job as a parent, and Chris never had it easy. He always worried about much. It only got worse as Chris had gotten older, but now that he had Darren at his side who helped him be balanced. He was still scared shirtless, that's something he might never get over, but with Darren at his hand, Chris knew that he would never stand alone.  
Today was different. It wasn't his first day, but the first day at a new School for Marcia and Julian. Even before they had moved at the beginning of the year, Chris and Darren had talked about having the twins change schools for the new school year. Back then the year just had started, but they had gone through so much change in such a short time, the adults didn't want to rip them out of their known surroundings, aka their school. But after the move, they lived even further away from the twins' elementary school, so it was only logically for them to transfer to a school closer to home.  
But there was the problem laying. Marcia and Julian practically knew nobody at their new school, expect the one teacher they had met when they visited the school. With Nathalie, it had never been a problem. On her first day of elementary school, a couple of girls came up to her because they had seen her on Glee. She went with most of her friends to middle school, and when she started High school, she didn't even care about not knowing anybody because she always made friends quickly. Marcia and Julian were utterly different. Sure, Marcia didn't have any problems talking to strangers, but only when she knew, her dads were around or that they knew the person she would speak to them. With children, it was more complicated. She would instead do stuff alone than talk to another child or play with them. Julian would occasionally go and play with other children, but never speak to them. It was even still hard for him to get to have him talk to family friends, no matter how often they had seen each other.  
So yeah, Chris was scared. To top everything, they would be going to a private Christian school. Nathalie had gone to a public school until High School, and the Pacifican had not just a non-bullying-police that was strictly enforced, the students were old enough to not care about the sexuality of the other parents. But this was an elementary school. The parent would be way more concerned about their children, "catching the gay." The school may have promised them, they would make sure, to keep a close eye on Marcia and Julian, but who knew how that would end. How would the other children react? How would the parents react?  
This worrying was the reason why Chris was up hours before his alarm clock. But it wasn't just Marcia and Julian's first week of school, Lukas would start at daycare the day after. Chris and Darren had decided to start with daycare a bit earlier because soon enough they both had to work and nobody would be able to be home with Lukas.  
Knowing when the alarm would go off, Chris silent the clock and stood up, letting Darren sleep for a bit longer. While showering, Chris tried to tell himself that it would be okay, that the twins would find friends and that there would be no problem with bullying.  
"You're thinking too loud" Chris heard a whisper behind him and then felt arms snuck around his waist followed by the familiar feeling of Darren behind him.  
"Why are you awake?" Chris asked, but he knew the answer. Darren probably woke up because he had left. Whenever Chris seemed to suffer from his insomnia, Darren knew. The older man would also wake up and just lay there, cuddling with Chris, while the younger man tried to get at least some sleep.  
"The bed was lonely without you. And we need to prepare breakfast. The twins will have a hard time getting up, after the summer break and it'll be easier if we have breakfast ready when we start waking them up." Darren then started kissing Chris shoulders and neck, trying to loosen him up.  
Chris leaned against his husband, enjoying the kissed on his shoulders and the water on his face. There were not enough days they would enjoy a shower together, not with all the other things they had to do. "Give me your shampoo. I want to enjoy this before Lukas wakes up and we have to be responsible parents again."  
Chris laughed as he reached out for his shampoo and handed it to Darren. "And we aren't right now?" He asked playfully.  
"No, right now we are a young, married couple, still helplessly in love with each other even after six years of marriage."

Darren had been right. Shortly after their shower, which had taken longer than planned, Lukas woke up. While Chris took care of Lukas, Darren started preparing their breakfast. While the nearly 10-month-old baby usually slept through the night and didn't wake up until 7, he only slept until six that morning because Chris and Darren had put him way earlier to bed than usual since he didn't have any naps during the day and was more tired than he usually would have been.  
With Lukas awake, they didn't need to be that careful with making noises. While Marcia and Julian both could sleep through any noise, kind of like Darren, Lukas couldn't. Sometimes just someone walking past his room would wake him up. Chris sat his son into his high chair in the kitchen so that the infant was able to see them working around him. They had first wanted to make a typical breakfast, just cereal, and bread, but Darren had started with Pancake batter. Chris had tried to tell him not to he did, but the thought of Darren's chocolate pancakes stopped him. Or the blueberry pancake, that Darren did for himself, but which Chris would eat the most of.  
Making pancakes also meant, that they wouldn't have to weak Marcia and Julian up. The twins may be heavy sleepers, but their rooms were directly over the kitchen, they sleep with open windows, and the smell of delicious breakfast could do wonders. So, it was understandable why two sleepy third graders made their way into the kitchen the moment the first batch of pancakes where finished.  
Sitting at the breakfast table with all of their children together reminded Chris of the first days living with Nathalie. Even as an 8-year-old, she had been independent. The first morning they had bacon and toast, curtsey to Nathalie. It hadn't been because Chris overslept, he just wasn't used to taking care if someone else too, that was why he woke up at his standard time, only to find out, Nathalie had already woken up and made breakfast for them. Chris had felt guilty and had tried to apologize, but Nathalie was okay with making breakfast. Over the next few months, it sometimes happened that Chris forgot to make breakfast or check her homework or make something for dinner. On those days, she did it herself, mastering her cooking skills way faster than Chris did.  
A few days after they started shooting the first episode, Nathalie had started third grade, and that day, Chris had woken up in time and made pancakes. It hadn't been entirely self-made pancakes, but it was the first time he ever made pancakes by himself. That day Chris had also been worried. Would she be able to find herself around in her school? Would Nathalie be able to understand everyone, since her English skills were still shallow, but she surprised Chris by telling about her day that evening in nearly perfect English, something she didn't have done ever before. As it turned out, she was just too shy to talk in English, being scared people will call her out if she miss pronounces something. Chris and Nathalie had overcome this problem a long time ago, but Marcia and Julian were different, and it scared Chris. He was worried over them daily.

After their family breakfast, something Chris was sure wouldn't be happening every morning, because Nathalie would leave for College sooner or later and until than there probably would be days she would want to sleep in, he and Darren send Marcia and Julian back upstairs to get ready, while they got ready themselves. "We need to tell them about New York this afternoon," the younger man mentioned in between getting himself dressed and getting their son dressed for the day. "And you need to talk to Lauren and Joey again. Even if they already agreed to babysit for us, they should have all the details of what they're getting into."  
Darren had just looked at him like he was crazy but eventually agreed. He probably knew it was better to agree with Chris than to try and argue about it. But Darren also knew that it was better to tell them now about their trip than only a few days before.

First days may be scary for Chris, but apparently not for Marcia and Julian, because the twins were faster ready than ever before. They even took longer on their birthday. After that, they did something, Nathalie used to hate, while she was still in school, but now loved since she wasn't in school anymore. Back to school photos. On her first days of Junior and Senior year, she secretly left before he and Darren were ready so that they had to surprise her when she would come home. Those were never the best pictures, but Darren's parents loved getting those, always saying it showed how much  
Nathalie had grown over, the last year, even if she had the same height since she was 15.  
To Nathalie's bad, they had a neighbor who was a hobby photographer and volunteer to take a picture of them as a family for their friends. To Chris surprise, the 19-year-old didn't complain but happily stepped behind Marcia.  
"Once, and never again." She whispered into Chris's ear as she walked past him, to help Marcia get strapped into her car seat. Because it was the first day back to school, Chris and Darren would bring Marcia and Julian to school together. The twins knew it wasn't something that would happen daily, because there would be days on which one of their parents had a meeting to attend in the morning or had to bring Lukas into daycare, and his daycare was in the opposite direction of the twins' school.  
Chris had to smile about it, he was sure, if Marcia asked her, Nathalie would join her on every back to school photo. He then had to concentrate again, having to make sure that he strapped Lukas correctly into his sear. There were so many things Chris was able to do without them having his full attention, but strapping his children into their car seats would never be one of those things because he was too careful for that. The first couple of months he triple checked if Lukas was strapped in correctly before he even left.  
With Darren driving and Nathalie sitting next to Lukas, Chris felt like he could relax a bit for the first time that day and it wasn't even 9. "We need to talk to them," Chris said quietly after a while. Darren just nodded, concentrating on the traffic. Chris didn't say anything after that, not until they arrived at school.

After Marcia and Julian got back from school, Darren had picked them up, because Chris had been in a writing zone at that moment, they got to tell Nathalie how their day was short before Nathalie left for a walk with Lukas and the dogs. Chris had asked her to do it, giving him and Darren the room to talk with Marcia and Julian.  
The two 8-year-olds were sitting on the couch next to each other, Chris and Darren sat opposite of them onto the other couch. "You guys know how I had to leave for a couple of days last years because of work, right?" Darren asked. Chris looked at him but didn't say anything, because they knew it was for more than just a couple of days in total.   
The twins just nodded. They probably knew in which direction this was going. "Well, I have to leave for a bit over a week at the end of September and Nathalie is gonna come with me to New York City, because of the work that we have there."   
"And I have to leave because of my book tour too," Chris added. Sure, they could have done the book tour at another time, but it would have meant Chris and Darren would have spent 2 different weeks separate instead of just a couple of days.   
"And what about us?" Piped Marcia up. She had this look on her face that Chris couldn't read. Even Nathalie had been easier to read after nearly a year.   
Chris and Darren looked at each other for a moment. This wasn't what they expected. Their daughter had sounded a bit colder than usual. "Well, you are gonna spend the week with Aunt Lauren and Uncle Joey here. This way Marcia can also attend rehearsals for Black Friday, and you can still go to school. This school is not like your old school. You can't just miss a week of school because we have work out of state. Also, you two know Lauren and Joey." He knew, he sounded like he was trying to explain himself, but he wasn't. He really wasn't.   
"And Lukas? Will you take him with you?" This time it had been Julian speaking.   
"No, it will be just Dad, Nathalie, and me in New York. He will also stay here with Aunt Lauren and Uncle Joey." Darren said.   
"Why can Nathalie go and not we? What does she have, that we don't? Is it because she grew up with you, or is it just because you know her longer?" Marcia snarled before she and Julian stood up and ran upstairs. Chris and Darren were just looking at each other, shocked about Marcia's outburst, before they heard two doors getting slammed shut. There would be no way to get the twins to talk to them, not while they were so angry.   
Were they furious because Chris and Darren took Nathalie with them to New York? It wasn't like Nathalie would be on vacation there. She still had to memorize her script for Black Friday, and she would also perform at Elsie Fest. 

Dinner had been rather quiet. Both Marcia and Julian were still in their rooms, Chris didn't know if they were in Marcia's or Julian's, because they had a door connecting their rooms, so Chris had sat a plate with multiple slices of bread in front of each room, enough for both of them on just one dish. Without them at the dinner table, Chris realized how much life they had brought into their lives.   
It wasn't until later that evening when Chris finally had the actual time to think over the reaction of the twins. He and Darren were laying in bed, well Darren was, Chris was trying to finish reading the book he was currently reading when it finally hit him.   
"Don't you wonder, why Marcia and Julian reacted the way they did?" Chris asked and put his book away. Darren didn't answer him, but by the way, he breathed Chris knew he was still awake. "I mean, there has to be a reason for it. A reason that isn't that they think we favor Nathalie because they should know that it isn't true." Chris continued. Darren had now turned around but still kept quiet. "They know it, right? And what do we even know about their lives before they came to us? We both saw what happened on their birthday. It is clear, that their mother didn't treat them the best way, but did she told them they were going to live with you or did she just dropped them off and left without saying anything. Or even worse, she told them they would just spend a weekend at a friends house and that she would pick them back up and never came. What if they think we'll do the same thing with them?"   
Darren grabbed him and kissed him to stop him from continuing with his rant. "Chris, baby, whatever happened is in the past. Sure, we'll need to talk with them about it, but we also need to make sure that they know that we won't leave them. I know, we said, your father would come over for the Elsie weekend, but what if, Lauren and Joey would take them to New York, so that they would see, that Nathalie and I would still be there?" Darren asked. "Sure, you wouldn't be there because you're in Georgia, but this would be better than waiting until Monday."   
"Thank you," Chris whispered.   
"Okay, now let's get to sleep, we still need to talk to them tomorrow, and we won't be able to do it without enough sleep."


End file.
